Position Report June 15, 2013

WE ARE STILL FLOATING!

We are glad to report we are STILL floating around! Having a good time and still looking for the heat.

After the Nor'Sea get together at the Oakland Yacht club we went out to anchor a bit more at Treasure Island. We received an e-mail from a Coast Guard man who is aboard the training ship Eagle! He and his fiancee were asking about taking a look at a Nor'Sea as a possible live aboard cruising boat. So we moved over to the marina there on TI for a couple of days and had a very nice visit! We also got to spend a few days walking around what WAS a Navy base and now seems to be the home to many wineries and other liquor manufactures!

We then headed out and stopped at Pier 39 for a few days. YES, we know VERY touristy! But hey, that is what we are now! We had a lot of fun just watching all the people and listening to music on the Pier. We were very impressed with an artist by the name of John H. Clarke. He has 2 CDs, one is called “String & Wood” and “Acoustic Guitar” we bought a copy of both. We also found that IF you show your dock key at many of the places to eat and let them know you are living there, you can get up to a 50% discount! To bad it took a few days for us to hear about it!!!... ;-(

From Pier 39, made a course for Berkeley marina. Our on board shower head was leaking, and finally broke. It's the type that has an on/off on it so once the water is the correct temp, you can turn it on and off with the push of one small button. It saves a LOT of fresh water. We do NOT use our water maker in the bay, so we only have our tanks to count on. We had to order a replacement, so we stayed there a couple of days longer than planned. We then anchored for one night back at TI. Can you tell we like it a lot?

We then went back to the Oakland Yacht club for a couple of days to attend a lecture by Gary Jobson. It turned out way better than I expected. It was a great talk with slides and video. One video showed a sail boat (well, I guess you could call it a boat) making over 60+ knots!!! In only about 20 knots of wind. Gary signed a copy of his book for Jill.

From there we headed back over to TI to anchor for a night. On the way over, as we exited the Alameda estuary, Jill saw the sun glinting off of something mid bay toward the city side. At first we could not tell what it was. Then it showed up as 2 boats, the first was a large power boat throwing up a 5 foot rooster tail. The second was the Americas Cup “Prada”, PASSING the power boat! Just to be on the water with them was amazing. We were in awe of the performance. And they were only practicing.

Our plans from there was to head back over to China Camp for a few nights. As we were raising anchor, I was not watching the chain coming off the gypsy close and it jammed up, before I released the switch, a shaft sheared. Normally in the past, the circuit breaker would pop, not so much luck this time. It took a few min for me to dig out my half inch ratchet (used as the manual backup handle) and raise anchor. I am loving the electric with a good manual backup.

So, now in search of some parts, we found that the Loch Lomond marina has a parts store and was on our way. We pulled in and found the parts store open and very helpful. We managed to order the parts, not commonly stocked, and get them on order. It was Memorial Weekend, so we got to spend a few extra days. Were we also got to visit Rob & LaDonna, on there new BIGGGGGG beautiful boat. As long as your waiting for parts, make the most fun of it!! We also got to see a BIG, home made, catamaran launch. Quite a sight and major topic of a lot of conversations. I will post photos of it on our site (in this report) as soon as I get the chance. Once we were finished fixing the windlass, it was time to move on. We checked the tide and current tables, and decided to anchor once more at China Camp, just about an hours run from Loch Lomond. This gave us the chance to test out the repairs and get better timing to go through the Carquinez Strait. This narrow straight is where two rivers, the Sacramento and the San Joaquin flow into the bay. The current can run through it at over 3 knots. We started out with no wind at all. We then got some wind, and then a LOT of wind! We made it, but it was a tiring day with a lot of motoring, some sailing and a lot of jockeying to make sure our timing was on to get through with not a lot of problems AND make it into the next marina we planned to visit before closing time. We arrived 5 min before closing.

Benicia marina was a place we wanted to stop and explore a bit. The marina is nice and new, and the town is made for tourists. We even got a talk by the guy manning the information building. The building used to be the old train station and sits on the water. It turns out it is haunted! He told us of his experience hearing sounds, before he even knew about it. As it turns out two different TV shows have been filmed in the building.

Our next stop was further in the Suisun and Honker bay. AND the wind was honking in Hounker Bay! We stopped at Pittsburg Marina. We read about all of the activities there and were looking forward to evening music and antique auto shows. Turns out non of that was taking place during our visit. :-(

And to top that off, the second day, our fresh water foot pump decided to start leaking!! Insert bad words here. We wound up staying a bit over a week waiting on a new pump, even though we have a spare. Of course the spare we have is in the truck more than 100 miles away.

One of our goals is to attend the Cajun Festival in Isleton. Music, Mud Bugs and beer, what could be better? So, we took the fork up the Sacramento river heading north. It should have been a clue to me that on the chart we are using, it has parts of the area we were crossing as “Windsurfing Zone”! Combine that with a deep water ship channel and a narrow river and navigation gets a LOT of attention! Jill sat looking aft for large ships coming up the river behind us. I sat with one eye on the channel markers, one eye on the engine and steering, and two eyes on the depth gauge. I am now 4 eyes! We were planning to anchor in a spot recommend to us in Horseshoe Bend by Decker Island, but it was blowing like stink and we wanted rest. So we went a bit further and pulled into the Delta Marina in Rio Vista. What a wonderful find! It's tucked in off the river and we just got the best rest we have had. It does not have a lot of surge like other marina we have been in. We walked to town and found a restaurant that amazed us!! It's called “Foster's Bighorn”. You can see it on there web site at;

http://www.fostersbighorn.com/FBH_Web_Site/Home.html

BUT, it's nothing like being there! Once again, I will post photos when I can.

That's about it for now. Next, the Cajun Fest.................

Greg & Jill